US Defense Secretary Ash Carter has lashed out at the Iraqi army, which last week abandoned the major central city of Ramadi, as well as millions of dollars’ worth of equipment, to the Islamic State, despite reportedly outnumbering the jihadists 10-to-1.

“What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just
showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered. In fact, they
vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and yet they failed to
fight, they withdrew from the site,” Carter, who was
appointed earlier this year, told CNN in scathing commentary.

“We can give them training, we can give them equipment – we
obviously can’t give them the will to fight,” Carter said,
adding that he still hopes that US training and support will bear
some fruit over time, as “only if they fight” can
Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS/ISIL) be defeated.

However, Hakim Al-Zamili, the head of Iraq’s parliamentary
defense and security committee, dismissed Carter’s claims as
“unrealistic and baseless.”

“The US failed to provide good equipment, weapons and aerial
support,” Al-Zamili told AP. “The US is trying to
deflect the blame.”

Details from last Sunday’s withdrawal have trickled out during
the past week, with Pentagon officials admitting that when the
Iraqi army fled, they left behind half a dozen US-made tanks, the
same number of artillery pieces, even more armored carriers, and
over 100 wheeled vehicles, mostly Humvees.

With unnamed US sources telling the media that the government
troops enjoyed a superiority of 10-to-1 over the Islamists,
various narratives have been brewing about the causes of the
defeat.

An initial slate of media reports blamed a sandstorm, which
purportedly prevented the US from providing air support, and
forced the Iraqis to re-locate to a safer position. However, logs
showed that American planes, which have carried out close to 200
air strikes against IS in Iraq in the past month, continued to
bomb enemy positions throughout last weekend’s battle, and the
Pentagon denies that it was impeded by the weather.

More alarming analyses emerged later, suggesting that deep-lying
sectarian divides could be behind the lack of desire to fight.

“The Iraqi army is dominated by Shia, and they were fighting
in a Sunni area – and they don’t want to get killed fighting to
defend Sunnis,” Ivan Eland, a military analyst, told RT.
Notably, Sunni tribesmen, on whom the US is increasingly relying
to fend off IS, are also said to have refused to take up
positions next to Shia fighters.

Despite US officials insisting that IS militants in Iraq are
strategically in retreat, and emphasizing that the forces near
Ramadi had never been directly trained by US instructors, Eland
believes that little faith should be placed in pro-government
forces.

“The root of the problem goes back to the US invasion, which
dismembered the Iraqi army, which has never been the same since.
Despite 8 years of US training, there is a lot of sectarianism
and corruption.”

Meanwhile, other options remain off the table for US President
Barack Obama, much to the chagrin of hawks, including current
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee John McCain, who
have criticized the White House for its “constrained”
intervention policy.

McCain has recently mocked Obama for “saying that the biggest
problem we have is climate change,” while there is “no
strategy” in Washington to fight IS. The Republican Senator
has even called for American boots to hit Iraqi ground while
speaking on Memorial Day.

According to Eland, choices in Iraq are now “poor.”

“You need ground forces, and you need military advisers on
the ground to launch the airstrikes. But the US doesn’t want to
get involved. Meanwhile, bombing without forces on the ground is
not that effective, and can even be counter-productive,”
Eland stressed. He also argued that given the current state of
affairs in the region, even professional Iraqi troops could end
up engaging in sectarian warfare when they were not fighting IS.

Yet even in the face of what US officials have conceded is an
“undeniable setback,” Carter tried to strike a positive
note.

“We can’t make this [victory over IS] happen by ourselves,
but we can assist it to happen, and we are counting on the Iraqi
people to come behind a multi-sectarian government in
Baghdad.”